[Navaho] "thought and speech ... arose from the medicine bundle
out of which all creation was to come and they were said to embody the
powers of the bundle. They took the form of a young man and woman of such
radiance ... that they could scarcely be looked upon. {"To fix your
gaze on them was impossible, the glare was surprisingly bright. ... Long-Life
Boy and Happiness Girl." (NSH, p. 127)} ... Their names are
... Long Life Boy (thought) and Happiness Girl (speech)".

[Papago] "Following the creation, the life forms {deities} known
as Dawn and Evening Twilight went on a tour to inspect the new world."
[apparently referring to the "Papago" poe:m on p. 22 : "With
my songs the evening spread echoing And the early dawn emerged with a
good sound."]

"a name for a local woman of prodigious sexual appetites : Woman
Whose Genitals Are Always Hungry. These names ... were never used in direct
address to the persons so described."

p. 70 ritual relationships

"for the Navajos all parts of nature are related : animals, plants,
and people exist as brothers and sisters in a stable world; mankind has
close relatives in the other world with whom he may share his sicknesses
and from whom he may expect succor. ...

{Likewise, in Kemetic royal ritual texts the deities (some of whom may
be repraesented as animal-headed) are described in specific kinship-terms
in relation to members of the royal family. These metaphors are expected
to be accepted by the deities invoked as applicable endearments, so as
to help gain divine succour.}

However, beyond the immediate family, it seems to be that the relational
ideas are applied as ritual metaphors ... . ... Rather, the relationships
seem to be part of the ... system of ritual enactments the aim of which
is to maintain stability in a world which inclines toward instability.
Most ... are invoked at times ... when the illness of the patient is central
to everyone’s concern."

[Navaho] "The sufferer finds his or her way to health from within
the sand painting, and by becoming part of it, it disappears and becomes
a part of him or her."

{Or, is the ailment re-absorbed through the sandpainting into another
world; and the sand of the sandpainting thereupon sacrificed as a sacrificial
offering in payment to the deities who helped to retract the ailment via
the sandpainting?}

p. 82 how naughty young children are disciplined [Hopi]

"Giant Kachina in the Soyoko ritual proceedings, which are aimed
at disciplining uninitiated children. These monstrous-appearing figures
come to houses of misbehaving children and demand that the children be
given them to eat. This forces the parents to bargain with the kachinas
in order to save their children."

[dream by a ritual impersonator of the Giant Kachina] "I ... dreamed
that I was still a Giant kachina arguing for the children. I reached out
my hand to grab a child ... . The little one held his hands to me, crying
and begging to be set free. Filled with pity, I urged him to be a good
child in order to free himself from the Giant Spirit."

"The Newekwe, who constitute a medicine society, ... specialize
... in private shamanic journeys on the Milky Way. ... Among the shamanic
powers gained through membership is the ability to eat any kind {cf. Aghorin
eating-habits} or amount of food".

p. 128

"Wide, alternating black-and-white horizontal stripes are painted
on the skin, from head to toe. The stripes of the clown represent the
Ash (Milky) Way, the sacred path traveled through the sky by Payatamu,
the son of the Sun Father and the founder and patron deity of the Newekwe.
... From then on he had said the opposite of what he means and had been
known as Nepayatamu".

p. 129

"The medicine of the Newekwe ... may include Datura inoxia.
This sacramental medicine enables the communicant to clown without shame,
to eat anything with impunity, and to travel on the Milky Way".

"The leader gets up on this hill and calls out, "yaahahay!"
... . ... "You will hear me cry in this way when we have reached
the end of our life-way. It will be a sign that we have reached the end
of the world. We will know then whether we have fulfilled our destiny.
If we have not we will see how it is to be done.""

p. 151

"The leader [of the clowns] who was a visionary man ... reminding
his people that they have ... to gain a spiritual world ... reminded that
we are clowns, maybe we have, from time to time, introspection as a guide
to lead us right. ... When the clowns come they represent man today who
is trying to reach this place of paradise. That is why the clowns always
arrive at the plaza from the rooftops of the houses ... . The rooftops
signify that even though we have reached the end, we are not necessarily
ready to walk easily into the spiritual world. ...

The clowns come to the edge of the rooftops around noon and they announce
themselves with the cry "yaahahay!" ... . This announces as
foretold at emergence {from the netherworld} the arrival at the end of
the life-journey."

"entrance into earthly life is given to the four spiritual counterparts
of all things, ... the four souls. ...

The first one ... is the Niya, which is ... the life-breath
of a being. ...

p. 166

The second soul, known as the Nagi, is ... is much like a mirror
image of the person’s form, at once ephemeral when seen, transparent,
and capable of easy transition to and from the spirit world. ... In many
cases the temporary absence of the Nagi is cause for ... insanity.
... Among the Lakota there are those who at a very young age exhibit pre-knowledge
of the world and of customs or persons long passed away. Such a person
is said to be the explicit and individual Nagi of one who has lived
before, returning in another

p. 167

body to participate again in the earthly life. This is frequently believed
of twins and of certain shamans".

p. 169

"Since all creatures possess Nagi, they are able to commune
with the Wica-nagi or spirits of men and women in the one language
all Nagi learned in the spirit world.

pp. 169-170 dreaming & spiritual power

p. 169

"In the spirit world – dream time – all becomes possible. There,
if the quester has a good heart and a pure mind, the dream beings may
reward him or her with special powers which can be activated".

p. 170

"This brings us to the third aspect of soul or manifestation of
spiritlike principle. ... The Sicun is that mysterious spiritlike
power which all things possess. ... In some animals, it is their possession
of the eternal and unfettered wisdom of the gods which man desires to
know. This can only be communicated while ... in a magical flight ...
where the Nagi of the seeker enters upon a mystical journey to
that other world and returns ... to reinhabit his original body ... .
While in the other realm, the encounter might have been as most dramatic
affair endowed with all the trappings of a pageant ... . Emerging nonetheless,
... the Nagi of the seeker is offered a portion of the Sicun
of his spirit visitor, and instructed about its use and about the ritual
songs, dances, or prayers to be utilized in activating it once he returns
to the ordinary world."

"The Lakota conceive of Taku Skan Skan, or that which moves
and causes all of life to move or to live {in whom "we live, and
move, and have our being" (Acts of the Apostles 17:28)}, as
though the entire universe were injected or infused ... . This which causes
all movement was the original source of all things as the beginning ...
. From it came all of the energy of life, ranging ... to that which causes
the tiniest incest to move about and know its rhythm and part in the scheme
of things. This Taku Skan Skan in all things is referred to as
the Nagila, or little ghost that dwells in everything. Less
personal and more magnanimous that the other souls, the Nagila
is responsible for wholeness – ... that binds and holds together all components.
It is a bit of the divine essence – the mysterious force that makes all
things and beings relatives to each other and to their common ancestor.

The profundity of this realization is expressed in ... mitakuye oyasin,
"all my relatives" or "I am related to all that is.""

"Also Old Man said to the people: "... Something will come
to you in your dream, that will help you. Whatever these animals tell
you to do, you must obey them, as they appear to you in your sleep. Be
guided by them. ... Whatever animal answers your prayer, you must listen
to him.""

"For the Oglala it seems that distinguishing between dream and vision
is of little importance or no concern, for many of the recorded encounters
with animal spirits which took place in the dream state held the same
"power" as if the experience had been a waking vision. ... Evidently
in both dream and vision there is ... a shift to another level ..., on
which the Oglala is ... encountering the ... archetypal "essences"
{viz., deities} appearing in animal forms."

p. 179

"Among the recurring patterns are association of the animal or bird
"spirit-form" with the powers of the four directions, which
appearing conjunction with manifestations of the terrifying aspects of
these powers, notably the Thunder-Beings. ... Or men may turn into animals,
and vice versa, or one species of animal may shift into another, or an
animal may take on some plant form which is to become the sacred medicinal
herb later identified and used for curing.

Frequently it is the animal who finally disappears who becomes the seeker’s
guardian-spirit; or else, "... the animal that appeared ... entered
his body and became part of his wakan strength. He might ... many
times ... have many such tutelary spirits within his body.""

pp. 179-80 realms of specific species of animal-deities

p. 179

"For some, experiences were of such an intense and recurring nature
that the recipient might become one of a number of types of "medicine-men";
those who had dreamed or had visions of the Thunder-Beings or of dogs
were destined to become hehoka, or contraries. ... there is a certain
ranking of the animals, or of their underlying "spirit-power."

Grizzly Bear, for example, was understood to be chief

p. 180

of the underground earth forces, conceived in a ... terrifying aspect;

the bison was chief ... over all animals of the surface of the earth,

and the eagle was seen to have supremacy over all flying beings."

pp. 181-2 distinct worlds

p. 181

"what we then were doing was like a shadow cast upon the earth from
yonder vision in the heavens, so bright and clear. I knew the real world
was yonder and the darkened dream of it was here." {This "type
of thinking" and "attitude of mind" are characteristic
of mystical religion worldwide throughout human history.}

"dreamt and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits
of all things. That is the real world that is

p. 182

behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow
from that world." {as, e.g., in Platon’s "myth of the
cave"}

pp. 182, 184-5 cocoon of Whirlwind-deity; moth

p. 182

"In Lakota mythology, the Whirlwind (Umi or Yum) {either
/UMI/ is cognate with the Norse god-name /YMI-/; or else, /YUM/ is Maya
/YUM/ (in god-names).} is the little brother of the four winds, all five
sons of Tate, the Wind. Whirlwind was born prematurely and never grew
up {Ploutos & Naraka are likewise divine boys who never grew up.},
but remained a playful child, sometimes naughty, but much loved, especially
by the beautiful Wohpe, who married his brother the South Wind".

p. 184

"The cocoon-encapsulated whirlwind power is of obvious value ...
to ... have power to produce confusion of the mind".

p. 184-5

"a Gros Ventre ... line connecting the horn of a bison to an insect
... represents "a rapport between the buffalo and the moth"".

p. 185 spider protecting babies

"the spider or his web has power to protect ... made specific in
the Oglala custom of stringing up a web-like hammock ... upon which a
young child is placed, which is thought to bring him good fortune."
{cf. also the cobweblike dream-catcher}

p. 186 heartless Elk-deity

"supernatural Elk – a "spirit" animal that lacks a heart,
or rather, has a space where the heart should be, an animal without a
heart being ... immortal and supernatural."

" "Hanblecheyapi" or "Crying for a Vision" is
among the most ancient Lakota rites. ... The person who wanted a vision
sought the guidance and instruction of a holy man ... . ... The actual
crying for a dream occurred in isolation usually atop a high butte or
hill. Upon arrival at the chosen place, the seeker ritually prepared an
area of earth making it a "center of the earth." ... Generally
the quest included the gift of some object representing a spirit that
would be the visionary’s helper throughout life. ...

But the individual could not actualize even the unique powers of the
dream without the help of the community. In most bands, the dreamer had
to enact the dream for the tribe before it could become efficacious."

"I did not ask for my office. My work was made for me and given
to me by the other world, by the Thunder Beings. I am compelled to live
this way that is not of my own choosing, because they chose me. ... My
whole like is to do the bidding of the Thunder Beings ... and to pay heed
to what the Grandfathers {deities : cf. pitamaha Brahma}
tell me.

p. 208 the life-dream

"In the dream, as I sat, two eagles were soaring in the distance
and then began to approach me. ... Diving down in front of me they said.
"We have come for you now.""

p. 230-1 telling of visions by initiator as praelude to telling by the initiated;
holy-communion

p. 230

"Then he began telling me of his visions – that is, the story of
his power ... and his qualifications to conduct such rites; and a little
bird sound came, his intercessor, Red Hawk, arrived; and it was time for
me to tell now of the things I had seen and heard and experienced on the
hill. Starting from the beginning and not leaving out anything that might
have meaning, I began to tell of all that had happened. The intercessor
heard this ..., and I had my first drink, which was cherry juice. [The
initiator] first dipped a braid of sweet grass in the cherry juice and
I sucked the juice from the end of the sweet grass."

p. 231

"The first dish that was brought around was the wasna, the
dried and pounded pemmican mixed with chokeberries. I gave my first handful
to the spirits that they might be fed, and it was taken out and offered
to them."